Swedish national rail operator SJ is trying to increase seats on its trains as demand rockets following a decision to close almost all of Sweden's airspace from 6pm on Thursday as a cloud of volcanic ash spreads across Scandinavia.

A school in Karesuando in northern Sweden has been criticised by the National Agency for Education (Skolverket) for holding prayer and psalm readings during classes after children from a conservative Lutheran offshoot joined the school.

Sweden's population increased by 84,000 people in 2009 and is set to grow by 600,000 over the next ten years, passing the 10 million mark in 2021, according to a new forecast from Statistics Sweden (SCB).

Sweden's finance minister Anders Borg presented the spring fiscal policy proposal on Thursday and announced a cut in the GDP growth forecast to 2.5 percent in 2010, 3.9 percent in 2011 and 3.5 percent in 2012.